They’re the best of the best, aren’t they? The cream of the crop, the pick of the litter. The finest, most talented, and most dedicated athletes at any given moment.

You’d think they’d somewhat resemble each other.

Okay, so I know that people come in all different shapes and sizes. And it’s obvious that there exists different standards and physical advantages for different sports. But looking at these Olympic athletes side by side, I couldn’t help but be surprised at just how different their body types are.

Photographed by Howard Schatz, these photos are part of the 125 portraits chronicled in the book Athlete.

2 Responses to “Olympic Athlete Bodies, Side by Side”

I love these! First saw them a year or two ago. A great resource for artists who aren’t drawing from life, but want to give the full range of the human figure. But doesn’t seem like it’s translated into the world of comic books yet….

love this! I only saw part of it (from buzzfeed or something), but i think it would be even more compelling if they put the athlete types all together in one row (they do that sometimes in the above photos). Like these are all wrestlers, or these are all volleyball players. Athletes within the same sport tend to work the same muscles, so seeing how different their body types still are, it would be very compelling.

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